Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

Lets have some perspective

Since 2014 our competitors have been in lay-off mode. Just google Chevron or ConocoPhilips or BP layoffs and you will see these companies have had 3/4/5 rounds of layoffs in last 5 years. XOM protected employees through these cycles and was developing a smart 2025 Plan to re-capture top position, before joint black swans of OPEC+ and COVID caused a pause, and need to trim costs. I have watched colleagues in BP and Chevron have to re-apply for their jobs multiple times since 2014. XOM cut drilling programs, deferred capital programs, and released contractors, before expanding the program to release low performing employees. But the company is still hemorrhaging cash at $40/oil, so cuts must be deeper. I agree that we could have taken 20% dividend cut and preserved jobs, but it would only delay the inevitable because even with the dividend cut we would still be uneconomic.

Originally posted by @bby+17xNulI2.

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| 2666 views | | 14 replies (last October 23, 2020) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+17yxP4SZ

14 replies (most recent on top)

The CL 28-29 Rank group is brutal. Same with 30-32. Everyone has 15 to 40 years experience. Many are specialists. Someone has to be on the bottom. In past some young high flying managers filled the top of the rank group which pushed down older professionals. I beleive they should rank CL 28-29 professionals separately from Managers and cut the bottom 20% of the management group AND 20% of the professional group. Alternately, if managers have good tech skills...Simply ALWAYS force the lowest 20% of manaers back into professional jobs...If they have good tech skills they will do fine. If their tech skils have atrophied, hen they will fall to the bottom and be Pipd.

I future PIP bottom 5% of CL 20 to 25 every year. PIP 2% of CL 26-27 and reclassify (demote) 2% of CL 28+ every year , if they don't work out in lower rank group in one year then (PIP).

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Post ID: @1kxb+17yxP4SZ

You must know everything about Exxonmobil employees. 🙄

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Post ID: @asb+17yxP4SZ

Exxonmobil employees are sheltered from the real world. The ones complaining now are incredibly ignorant and worthy of the PIP they received.

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Post ID: @uvz+17yxP4SZ

You forgot the mass forced retirements.

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Post ID: @nua+17yxP4SZ

Wow that’s a lie I’ve seen Exxonmobil laying off for at least five years quietly and well hidden from the public.

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Post ID: @fja+17yxP4SZ

Umm.. my spouse is at COP and the morale is not any better. They now face the 4th or 5th (we’ve lost count) round of job cuts. So I agree with the OP. Stop saying everything is amazing and wonderful everywhere else. It’s not true. Be grateful it’s taken us this long to resort to job reductions. It’s very sad, but necessary.

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Post ID: @tpx+17yxP4SZ

@vni+17yxP4SZ: well said. The disguised layoff is the issue.

Darren Woods at the Shareholders meeting on 5/27: “As you all know, we work hard to avoid layoffs. Today, we have no layoff plans.”

When he said that, he knew the performance appraisal process had just been abruptly revised to increase the number of employee separations by a factor of three, which would lead to a workforce reduction “on the cheap” of about 1600 U.S. employees. He also knew after that carnage was over, there would be a large scale workforce reduction in the U.S. that he would later refer to as a “layoff.”

Credibility used to be valued. It apparently doesn’t matter anymore.

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Post ID: @lls+17yxP4SZ

Sorry that last post was in response to @ebz+17yxP4SZ

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Post ID: @jne+17yxP4SZ

@vni+17yxP4SZ

Sorry grasshopper, but I have been in more ranking meetings over the decades than you can count. I know EXACTLY how they work.

Rigid forced distribution is a zero sum game and a very poor means of evaluating and rewarding people. It is a fatally flawed system, especially when results are rigged. When employees have spent their entire careers with high rankings, promotions, outstanding accomplishments recognized and rewarded by the company, etc., how is it possible that 99% of them get dropped into the bottom of the rank list late in their career??? And this is just one of the fallacies of the ranking system EM uses.

Keep drinking that tiger kool-aid and making statements about which you have no knowledge or perspective whatsoever. You are just tiger bait, and one day he will come for you too.

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Post ID: @hbf+17yxP4SZ

@vni+17yxP4SZ, by saying that "artificially lowers rankings" what you're really saying is that you have no clue how the performance assessment system works. There is a lot that you could blame XOM for, but the forced distribution principles are not it.

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Post ID: @ebz+17yxP4SZ

Let's have some reality. What's driving the majority of frustration among employees is not WHAT the company is doing with layoffs, it is HOW they are doing it.

Honesty and transparency go a long way toward helping people accept change, even if it negatively affects them.

Instead, EM plays games and tries to disguise layoffs and artificially lowers rankings which destroy trust, strips employees of dignity and self-worth, and on and on as seen by comments on this forum.

Layoffs have always been, and will always be, a recurring event in this industry. If treated reasonably, employees and contractors can deal with that reality in a healthy and professional way. EM Just needs to do their part by handling it with a modicum of truth and honesty.

Take a person's job, but let them keep their dignity.

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Post ID: @vni+17yxP4SZ

So which genius came up with this visionary aggressive growth plan and expand like crazy when all competitors are slimming down? I guess he will be held accountable?

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Post ID: @snr+17yxP4SZ

You must be in senior management...

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Post ID: @spp+17yxP4SZ

So why is moral so much better and CEO approval so much higher at the companies that have been routinely cleaning house? What’s the perspective? We say one thing and then do another. Every time. That is the real problem. We need a coherent strategy.

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Post ID: @uep+17yxP4SZ

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